- Sep 26, 2000
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http://www.boston.com/news/local/ma...n-last-year/SzGv3MGoDFFkE44GeqGEAM/story.html
New England Compounding Center paid owners more than $16 million last year
The owners of the Framingham pharmacy blamed for the fungal meningitis outbreak that has killed dozens of people and sickened hundreds more pulled millions of dollars out of the company in the last year.
Bankruptcy records show the four family members who cofounded New England Compounding Center received more than $16 million in wages and profits from the firm from December 2011 through November 2012 — roughly equal to half its sales during this period.
The filings also show the family members racked up $90,000 on corporate American Express credit cards, including charges made after the company shut down in early October. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy just before Christmas.
An attorney involved in the bankruptcy case said he felt “shock and amazement” when he saw the list of payments for family members.
“It’s tremendously unusual,” said William R. Baldiga, a partner at the Boston law firm Brown Rudnick who is representing the committee of unsecured creditors owed money by the company, including people who were sickened by the company’s drugs. “This is not a large company.”
Members of the unsecured creditors committee plan to meet Tuesday to discuss what, if anything, to do about the money paid to the company’s owners in the past year.
The compounding pharmacy suspended operations after government investigators tied the outbreak to contaminated steroid injections made by the company — largely to treat back pain — and shipped to clinics across the country.
At least 44 people have died and 678 have become ill in 19 states from fungal meningitis or other complications after receiving the shots, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
State and federal investigators who inspected the facility last fall have said they found that the company ignored signs that the “clean rooms” where the steroids were prepared were contaminated and did not do enough to test the drugs before shipping them to pain clinics.
Get used to it. With unlimited corporate donations and the Tea Party expect to see less oversight and regulation.
Tell me again how over regulated business is in America and how great everything would be if we just let corporations act without supervision.
And tell me why the Consumer Protection Agency should not have an administrator.
New England Compounding Center paid owners more than $16 million last year
The owners of the Framingham pharmacy blamed for the fungal meningitis outbreak that has killed dozens of people and sickened hundreds more pulled millions of dollars out of the company in the last year.
Bankruptcy records show the four family members who cofounded New England Compounding Center received more than $16 million in wages and profits from the firm from December 2011 through November 2012 — roughly equal to half its sales during this period.
The filings also show the family members racked up $90,000 on corporate American Express credit cards, including charges made after the company shut down in early October. The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy just before Christmas.
An attorney involved in the bankruptcy case said he felt “shock and amazement” when he saw the list of payments for family members.
“It’s tremendously unusual,” said William R. Baldiga, a partner at the Boston law firm Brown Rudnick who is representing the committee of unsecured creditors owed money by the company, including people who were sickened by the company’s drugs. “This is not a large company.”
Members of the unsecured creditors committee plan to meet Tuesday to discuss what, if anything, to do about the money paid to the company’s owners in the past year.
The compounding pharmacy suspended operations after government investigators tied the outbreak to contaminated steroid injections made by the company — largely to treat back pain — and shipped to clinics across the country.
At least 44 people have died and 678 have become ill in 19 states from fungal meningitis or other complications after receiving the shots, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
State and federal investigators who inspected the facility last fall have said they found that the company ignored signs that the “clean rooms” where the steroids were prepared were contaminated and did not do enough to test the drugs before shipping them to pain clinics.
Get used to it. With unlimited corporate donations and the Tea Party expect to see less oversight and regulation.
Tell me again how over regulated business is in America and how great everything would be if we just let corporations act without supervision.
And tell me why the Consumer Protection Agency should not have an administrator.
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